All about nature, conservation and sustainable development

Colour Blocking

I love colour! I love the vibrancy that colour brings to life. I don’t even have a favourite colour; Given a chance, I would have the seven colours of the rainbow classified as one colour, then ‘rainbow’ would be my favourite colour.

For a long time, people have been quite conservative about colour. Greys, Monochrome (Black and White), Blue… Then in the past few years, colour blocking became all the rage. Bright happy colours combined together to form interesting outfits.

‘Where is she going with all this considering that this is not a fashion blog?’ the readers ask

Aspects of environmental management have for a long time been managed individually. For example, water management. Water was managed as water. So the water people were just the water people. Not considering that there are many other users of water who also contribute to the quality and quantity of water. The other uses include: Agriculture (Farmers), Energy (Geothermal & Hydroelectric), Municipal (Supply to individuals and wastewater management), Domestic (Hygiene,Drinking and Cooking) and most importantly for to maintain ecosystems such as forests, soil, wildlife and all other biodiversity (fish and amphibians). This type of management did not work. It was not sustainable as people got bored and deserted projects. These projects were sort of forced on them therefore there was no ownership.

Today, managers realise the importance of including different people from different walks of life in their projects. Colour blocking in environmental management, is including the different colours to achieve a ‘rainbow effect’, that is, people from the different sectors; encouraging participation from the communities and especially women, youth and the disabled; integrating indigenous knowledge and ensuring that the needs of the people are met versus assuming that we know what the needs of the people are. This process, difficult as it is to have everyone on board and to agree on various issues, is sustainable. And brings joy to manager’s hearts as the mission has been accomplished.